Psycho Investigator
by AnimeGirl2258
Summary: There's a new psycho at headquarters, could she be too much for Juuzou and Shinohara to handle?
1. Chapter 1

Psycho Investigator

There was a psychopath in the ranks of CCG which everyone was continuously complaining about, and for once it wasn't Juuzou Suzuya. This psychopath was one which committed terrible acts of violence against both human and ghoul, again not Juuzou Suzuya, one which made a shiver travel down everyone's spin due to the eerie atmosphere they carried.

Shinohara strode down the spacious halls of Twentieth Ward Headquarters as he wondered just how he was supposed to deal with someone described in such a way. The new eccentric had been transferred to his branch specifically because of the oddities the psycho carried, Shinohara had become well known in CCG, not only due to his rank, for how well he handled a troubled child like Juuzou, he only hoped that he would do well with the new Investigator.

Entering into a small meeting room Juuzou and Shinohara saw no one, they searched all about but saw no one, that is until Juuzou ducked his head down to peer under the meeting table where a girl lay. Shinohara crouched down alongside his partner to look on the strange figure.

"What're you doing under there for?" Juuzou called curiously as he noticed she was tracing the bottom of the table with a pencil.

"Art." She answered, "like how DeVinci painted the ceiling of that church that one time. He had to do the top part like this, suspended in the air, this is the best I could get what with having to wait on you people." She answered.

"You can't draw on the table…" Shinohara scolded lightly with a nervy smile, he didn't want to upset the girl on their first meeting after all.

"I'm not." She then gave a sharp tug and a large piece of paper was removed from the bottom of the tables surface, she was quick to slide herself out from under the table, where she took to her feet before Shinohara and Juuzou even saw her move to do so. "Amon-san already told me not to!" She grinned to them in an almost proud way.

Juuzou began to inspect her then, long black locks that flowed all the way to her ankles, streaked with thin strips of aqua. His eyes moved back to her feet, her legs were covered by mismatched leggings, one vertically striped pink and blue, the other being solid pink. From what Juuzou could see the girl's shorts were oddly made, as they were blue checkered and appeared to be frilled at the ends. Finally, he began to inspect her pink hoodie, it didn't look like she was wearing a shirt underneath, as the zipper was only zipped to just below her breasts leaving much of her small chest exposed, he noticed small pink devil's wings peeking out from behind her shoulders, he guessed they were attached to the back of the hoodie and he began to wonder why they were pink when usually stuff like that was colored red.

"What's this?" The girl questioned as she leaned toward Juuzou with an almost disturbing expression on her face, "don't even know my name yet and you're already eyeing me up? Think you wanna piece huh?" She stuck her tongue out along with a hiss, Juuzou found himself being taken aback by her ominous vibe which felt thick and humid as it clung to his skin.

"Ah~ no, not at all!" He exclaimed returning a lesser grin than the one she'd worn earlier, "you're just weird looking is all!" She spat at that.

"Same goes to you, Clown Slippers!" She retorted while pointing at his bright red house shoes.

"Now, now you two." Shinohara intervened quickly, "it's a pleasure to meet you," he said as he looked to the girl, "I'm Yukinori Shinohara, this here," he patted Juuzou on the shoulder roughly, "is my partner Juuzou Suzuya." The girl pursed her lips as she inspected them for a moment, then she crossed her arms as another smile crept onto her lips.

"I'm Mon Mura, it's nice meeting you too, Big Guy!" She traveled to the window and propped herself on its edge as she began to inspect the art piece she'd been working on.

"Oh-ho! I wanna see!" Juuzou exclaimed as he came closer to the creepy girl before him, she turned the large paper to his eyes and he took a sharp breath.

The art before him depicted horrible things, cannibalism, torture, agony, in the piece only one ghoul was present, its eyes dark with kakugan, it's pure white ukaku spread wide as it glowed with brilliance, Juuzou could tell that the creature was acting as an angel as it looked on the humans below devouring and maiming one another. It was beautiful, but disturbing at the same time so much so that looking on the image caused Juuzou to have instances of good boy time run through his mind as he looked on the similar tortures the people in the portrait were going through.

"Why would you draw something like that?" Shinohara questioned in awe of the work, Mon pulled the paper away from the two.

"Eh? I went to an awful lot of trouble for it." She began to explain, "do you know how many people I had to perform these methods on just to see how their bodies would writhe? I performed a number of autopsy's as well, actually the people I was using were still alive, so I guess it's a biopsy then right?" She gave another grin, Shinohara hesitated before speaking.

"Mura-chan, you shouldn't- "

"STOP!" She shouted suddenly, "don't ever call me by my last name, Idiot!" She ordered with as she kicked her heel against the wall just below her perch, Shinohara waved for her to calm down.

"Forgive me!" He exclaimed quickly as he realized that the girl was just waiting for a reason to erupt, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you!" A smile was quick to take to her lips again.

"So long as you didn't mean to its okay~"

"A-ah right… As I was saying: you shouldn't do such things to humans." He continued quietly, she cocked her head to one side with an audible crakc.

"So it's only bad if it happens to humans?"

"Well, no that's not- " Her head cocked to the opposite side with yet another crack.

"It's okay if it happens to ghouls, is that what you're saying?"

"No that's not- " She straightened.

"That's awfully shitty of you! Ah but wait, I kept interrupting you didn't I? 'It's not okay for any of these things to happen to anyone' is what you're trying to tell me right?"

"Yes! That's exactly it!" He exclaimed as he was beginning to become irritated, just then Mon hopped from the window ceil, and stepped as closely as she could to Shinohara without touching him, she looked up at him with the eyes of a demon ready to destroy a human's soul for pleasure as its purpose.

"Say it. Tell me that right now." She hissed, "I wanna hear those words come out of your mouth." Shinohara stared sternly back down to her, meeting her challenge as he did so.

"It isn't okay for you to do those things to any living creature." He stated deeply and the girls smile widened.

"You lie!" She shouted, taking him by surprise. "When you said 'any living creature' your mind only went to two species, humans and ghouls, and that's the moment that gave you away! I saw your eyes darken at the thought of you taking up for ghoul's, meaning you don't give a shit what happens to ghouls, which is basically you saying something as arrogant as: no other living thing matters except for humanity!" Shinohara stepped back and then Mon's grin widened in malice, "there it was again! When I said it that time your pupils contracted meaning that it's not true! Not all human life matters to you does it? No, only your life, oh the pupils dilated that time, you just thought of your friends and your family didn't you? So then I guess that means you don't only care for yourself then huh? That's nice." She stepped back, "but stop trying to fool yourself into thinking you care about humanity as a whole because you clearly don't, you want to, but your hearts just not big enough right? It's fine, it's fine, most smart people don't even care about their family, so I guess you're on the socially acceptable level of stupid, congrats!"

There was no way that Shinohara could take such a girl under his wing! Mon was on a totally different level than Juuzou, as he thought on it he looked to his partner, whom stared up at him owlishly, no she was nothing like Juuzou, sure he was a bit out there and his morals left much to be desired, however he was ultimately a person who could be caring, in his own weird way, and kind.

"What's this then?" Mon questioned as she perched herself in the window again, crossing one leg over the other. "Comparing me to your little partner now? I could tell by the way you looked from me to him and then your eyes softened a little. Have you decided to give up on taming me like the other six?" She cackled at that, "how disappointingly predictable!"

"You're jumping the gun a bit aren't you?" Shinohara's question caused the girl to blink, "it's true what they say, your human observation skills are amazing, but now you're just throwing out assumptions." Shinohara crossed his arms, "I can't give up on someone when I haven't even tried to help them, we'll be having outings three times a day, you, me, and Juuzou." Mon's shoulders slumped.

"Whyyyy? All you're gonna do is complain at me for being the worst human being ever!" She cackled as she began to fold her art work, once, twice, three times. "It's always gonna be the same, boring." She then removed a box of matches she'd had hidden in her hoodie and set the paper on fire, she dropped it in a nearby ash tray which was nearly spilling over with ash.

"Waaa, why'd you do that for?" Juuzou questioned, and Mon grinned at him.

"Because of your reactions to it! You were horrified by it right? So horrified that you couldn't let yourselves openly admit how beautiful it was, that means that it's a true piece of art! If I burn it up and then mix the ashes in with paint, then it'll rub off on the next piece and make it even more grim, more excellent!" She exclaimed with wide gestures, "just like painting with the blood of a dead person traps their soul inside the canvas! It makes it haunting! Creepy! Something people hate to love!" She laughed heartily, and Shinohara gritted his teeth, how was he supposed to deal with someone like that? A tug came to Shinohara's sleeve.

"I wouldn't mind if you gave up on her." Juuzou whispered as he looked at the girl with glossy eyes, could it have been that his subordinate was just as disturbed as he was?

Eating out in public didn't stop Mon from describing her hobbies in gruesome element to Shinohara and Juuzou, soon they knew of every autopsy, and biopsy, in detail so chilling it made Juuzou stiffen a bit, but that wasn't even the worst of her pastimes…

"Self-experimentation is my favorite thing to do!" Mon exclaimed gleefully.

"Heeeh? Self-experimentation?" Juuzou repeated as he was reluctantly interested in the subject, he didn't like Mon, not at all, but he had to admit that she had very interesting hobbies.

"Yep! I experiment on myself all the time!" She clapped her hands together, "I drink the blood of dead ghouls," Juuzou and Shinohara tensed at the same time, "eat their flesh, don't look at me like that I do the same thing with humans! Then I document changes in behavior, and mental state in my journal." That girl was too horrifying! She was clearly out of her godforsaken mind! Why the hell did they dump her off on Shinohara?!

"That's completely unacceptable!" Shinohara growled through gritted teeth, "you can't just go around cannibalizing people! It's horrible what are you a ghoul?!" She shook her head.

"Come on they're mostly dead when I do that stuff anyway! Have I made you suspicious of me? I'm not a ghoul, the tests all come back negative since I take them monthly to see if eating ghoul flesh would turn me into one of them, buuuut, I've been doing this for years now and I'm still completely human!" She then pointed at her head, "though my mental states changed substantially! I can tell when I look at my other notes, man those articles that tell about how eating human flesh taints the mind were right!" She studied Juuzou quickly, "ah! You just thought: 'you mean she knows that she's a crazy bitch?' Right?" Juuzou blinked, she'd read his mind! "Of course I know I'm like this! I'd be stupid to think I'm sane!"

"You need to stop the self-experimentation." Shinohara ordered.

"Even the ones when I sleep?"

"Wh-what do you…" Shinohara saw her preparing to explain and he braced himself for something horrible.

"At night time I play different genres of music to see how it affects my dreams!" She said as she smiled and tilted her head to one side, Juuzou blinked again.

"Is… that all?" She nodded, "well that's… Unexpected…" She leaned forward so that her torso rested on the tables surface, her facing coming within inches of Juuzou's.

"Hmmmmm? Is it too weak for your taste? Want me to tell you another gruesome one?!" Juuzou could smell blood on her breath, the heat from her mouth bursting on to his face. He leaned away and averted his eyes, unfortunately, when he lowered his gaze he saw her extensively exposed cleavage, his eyes lingered on the area for a moment and no longer, but since Mon was so quick, it was a moment too long. "What's this? Taking a peak at my tits?" She shouted loudly, causing the entire café to look at the investigators, "you really do want a piece don't you?!" She cackled, "or maybe you wanna try cannibalism!"

"Sit down!" Shinohara ordered as he pushed her back into her seat, "and be quiet!"

"Oooooh, I've upset the OLD MAN!" She screamed as she stood, "taking business ranking too seriously OLD MAN?! Thinking you're ACTUALLY MY BOSS?! You don't even come close! I can see your ego growing every time someone addresses you formally! Just another CURRPOT INVESTIGATOR PRETENDING TO BE PURE! At least I KNOW I'M EVIL!" He voice was rage-ridden, crazed, her expression went calm suddenly as she scooted her seat in and began to leave, pausing to whisper to the two. "Piss me off again and you'll be my next meal."

As Juuzou and Shinohara watched Mon storm off, the two were only left with a sense that things were going to get a lot more complicated for them.


	2. Chapter 2

Juuzou: Partner, Victim, Pet

There was no possible way that Mon was a ghoul. Done. End of story. Juuzou knew that ghouls were never so open about eating, no, Mon was just a crazy girl who knew no limits.

"Mon-chan," Juuzou called as he stopped and bent backward to look at her upside down, "what're you doing?" Due to the low lighting of a nearby street lamp, Mon seemed even more creepy than she did during day hours as her almost white eyes were nearly completely hidden under shadow, her smile left untouched by darkness as she grinned down on him.

"Following you, Dumbass!" She shouted, and just like that her face was suddenly hovering inches above his own. The sudden closeness, not to mention her screaming in his face, caused him to jump and lose balance in his stance and he fell on to the dirty pavement with a thud. Mon cackled down at him as he stayed sprawled on the ground looking up at her. "Nice going! Klutz!" Juuzou felt a twinge of anger as he got to his feet with an unpleasant frown.

"Don't you have some place else to waste your time?" He growled with a pout, Mon stopped mid-snort as she looked to him normally.

"Well that's a stupid question! I've got plenty of others places to 'waste time'!" Juuzou turned questioningly in response to her answer, she stretched a bit before speaking again. "I just wanted to see how a stray pet lives." Juuzou raised a brow.

"Eh? I'm not a pet." He stated simply only to have Mon giggle in such a way that caused Juuzou immediate irritation.

"Oh, but you are!" She exclaimed with a wide smile, "your past isn't a secret you know, everyone at CCG knows about it. You were a pet for the ghouls, then a pet for the Academy, now you're a pet for CCG, for Shinohara, you've always been a pet you've just got a longer leash now! But not for much longer." her eyes narrowed in a cruel way as she finished. "If I make you my pet then you won't have any sort of freedom whatsoever." Juuzou found a grin taking to his lips.

"Oh-ho! What's this? Mon-chan's become a yandere over me?" Mon cackled at that.

"No way! Not even a bit! I just so happen to believe that a pet should never go without a proper owner. Besides that, isn't it a little out of character for you to play the role your currently in?"

"Ah~ I'm getting tired of listening to your big mouth!" Juuzou cheered as he turned on his heel, he didn't have to stand there and listen to her ramble, "good night!" He waved over his shoulder.

"I mean really," she began to stroll behind him casually, "you're playing an investigator," she snorted, "that's not fitting for you at all. You'd be best at sticking to the role you played up until you were separated from your ghoul owner." She took a large leap forward, and her mouth was directly next to his ear, "the victim." He swatted her away and turned with a blank expression, nearly unreadable. Then he attacked. Lashing out suddenly, a knife went flying by Mon's ear, she distanced herself quickly and watched as Juuzou stared at her with that same expression. "You'll never stop being a victim, not ever. You're doomed to be abused, hurt, stepped on, and tortured by everyone you meet. You'll never be in control, you'll never be safe, because that's your role. I suggest you stop playing investigator, and get back to what you know."

"Man, do you ever shut up?" Juuzou growled, "you're so annoying. Why don't I sew up your mouth, I'll be doing everyone else a favor!" He exclaimed with a toothy grin, Mon sighed.

"Lashing out at me physically, then verbally, all the signs of someone trying to refute a hard truth. So sad. No worries though. I'll be sure to put you back in your place." She turned her back to him, "Goodnight, Pet."

"I don't like her." Juuzou stated to Shinohara, from across the CCG cafeteria table, as he stuffed a sandwich into his mouth, "she's annoying, and creepy. You should get rid of her."

"Did something happen between you and Mon?" Shinohara questioned with a raised brow, "it's not like you to complain so much."

"No, nothing happened, I just don't like her." He said as he gulped the sandwich down, "it's just that, if Mon-chan stays around for much longer, I'll probably kill her." He stated with a giggle.

"Now Juuzou, there's no need for that." Shinohara said firmly, almost fatherly, "it's hardly been three days' since you even met the girl, be patient with her and she'll come around eventually." Juuzou pursed his lips as he looked to Shinohara with a dubious expression.

"How do you know?"

"Because, you did." Juuzou's shoulders slumped a bit, "don't get me wrong Mon is different from you, but, it's not like your polar opposites. Everything will work out in the end." Juuzou had only just raised his eyes as a silken curtain of darkness and aqua sprawled down before him, blocking his view of Shinohara.

"Aww, what a cute little pep-talk!" Mon exclaimed as she dangled from an open panel in the ceiling, "it makes me wanna hurl!"

"GAH! M-mon-chan!" Shinohara cried, "what're you doing hanging from the ceiling like that?! Get down before you fall and break something!"

"You look like a colorful bat!" Juuzou commented.

"Eh? Come down? Why? I won't be here for long, I'm only reporting in like you told me to!" She pouted with a tilt of her head.

"I didn't mean for you to do it via the CEILING!" Shinohara exclaimed, not even Juuzou had done something so ridiculous before! "Wait, what are you reporting in for?" He questioned in sudden suspicion. Mon then smiled and held up one finger as a sign for him to wait a moment, she then lifted herself back up into the ceiling.

Not even a moment passed before a ghoul corpse was tossed down from the ceiling, landing on the table Shiohara and Juuzou sat at, the corpse hit the tables surface so hard that both it and the table went crashing to the side. Shinohara rose from his seat just as the corpse had hit the table, he then stared wide-eyed at the dead ghoul which laid crumpled on the floor, its bikaku kagune sprawled out underneath it, blood pooling around it, and creeping closer to Juuzou's slippers.

"Killed him in an alley-way across the street!" Mon's voice caused both investigators to look from the corpse to her, whom grinned down at them cruelly from the opening in the ceiling. "So there, I reported in! See ya later, Troglodytes!" She then placed the missing tile back into its spot.

"Jesus, what am I supposed to do about that?!" Shinohara growled lowly, knowing that Mon was quick and agile enough to get anywhere in CCG that way.

"I say we start stabbing swords into the ceiling until blood pours out!"

"NO! We're not doing that!" Shinohara sighed tiredly, "just get up and help me with this corpse! We'll have to report it in properly for her."

Later that same day, Shinohara had been looking for Mon and ended up getting Juuzou involved in the search. It was only when the two were passing by the interrogation room, and heard yelling that they were able to determine where Mon was.

After knocking a few times, Shinohara opened the door to the small room, usually used for interrogating ghouls, and found both a security guard staring at him as well as Mon.

"Ah, Investigator Shinohara," greeted the guard, "could you shut the door? I'm in the middle of an interrogation here."

"More like wasting my time," Mon mumbled, "not to mention coming dangerously close to being my next experiment."

"Interrogation?" Shinohara echoed, "what'd she do?" He sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I caught her crawling out of an air duct. She says she's an investigator, but she doesn't have an Investigator's Identification card on her, not only that but she claims to be a legal adult, says she twenty-years old, she even went so far as to give me a fake ID." As the guard finished Mon slammed her fist onto the table which separated the two.

"For the last motherfucking time: It's not a fake ID! I'm really twenty-years old!" She repeated the claim she'd been making for the past fifteen minutes, "I gave you my ID what more do you want from me?! My birth certificate? Because if that's the case then: FUCK YOU!"

"Watch your language Kid!" The guard shouted, causing Mon to growl.

"I'M AN ADULT!"

"THERE'S NO WAY! YOU LOOK FIFTEEN!"

"AND YOU LOOK LIKE A BLOBFISH, BUT YOU DON'T SEE ME BRINGING THAT UP!"

"Alright, alright, let's just all calm down." Shinohara said lightly, "I can confirm that Mon-chan is in fact an Investigator, I'm accountable for her."

"Aaaaaaaand?" Mon pushed as she rolled her hand for him to continue, Shinohara only shook his head with a sigh.

"And she's also a legal adult." Mon tapped the tabled with her hands before throwing them into the air and plopping down into her seat.

"THANK YOU!" She exclaimed before holding her hand out to the guard, "gimme my ID back now, Jackass."

"Afraid I can't do that." Said the guard, "you were still acting suspiciously and I'm going to mark you down as someone for security to keep an eye on."

"Why? Just because I know how to have fun and your life is worthless? Give me the card." She ordered.

"The only way you're getting this from me, is if you cut off my fingers." Juuzou watched as Mon's features darkened in a frightening way, just before she swiftly whipped a thick hunting knife out from her hoodie, there was a bright glint of metal and the guards hand fell to the floor as blood began to pour from the stump of his wrist. Mon reached down to the guard's severed hand and plucked her ID from its clutches.

"There, I did you one better I took off your entire hand." After being in stunned silence for that amount of time, the guard began to scream as he looked on his stump of a wrist. The man's howls were silenced immediately when Mon thrusted her knife at his throat, grinning down on him sadistically. "If you don't bleed out more quietly, then your head'll be next." He began to whimper like an old dog.

Juuzou couldn't help but to chuckle at the scene, that stupid guard had given him trouble before too. A hand came flying at him then, but it wasn't Mon's, she'd in fact chucked the guards severed hand at Juuzou, whom had seen it coming and stepped out of its path easily. He watched as the limb hit the wall just behind him with an audible crack, before falling limply to the ground.

"What're you laughing at, Pet?" She questioned.

"Mon-chan!" Shinohara interrupted, "put the knife down." He ordered sternly, Mon giggled.

"What's that Boss?" She mocked, "I didn't quite catch what you said over this guy's whimpering."

"Mon-chan! Put. It. Down!"

"Slit him open you say?" The man's whimpering increased, as both tears and snot began to roll down his ugly face. "Whatever you say, Boss!"

"Stop!" Shinohara hurried toward the two, but even though the room was small and there was hardly any space between them, he didn't reach them in time. Mon stabbed the knife into the man's jugular, causing blood to spurt from his neck and splatter onto herself and the wall, before continuing to sharply jerk the knife through the rest of his neck. The man was nearly decapitated as he fell to the floor, his spine visible as his head laid behind him, hardly attached by what flesh and muscle made up the nape of his neck. Mon cackled impishly.

Juuzou studied her closely with a blank expression, her hair, streaked with aqua, then sported small blood splatters, which also covered much of the milky skin of her face, as well as her clothes, the only thing untouched by the deep maroon of blood, were her nearly white eyes and her all too wide grin.

A devil. A demon. A fiend. A monster.

Shinohara, had compared he and Mon earlier, Juuzou knew that others had considered many, if not all, of his actions 'immoral' or 'monstrous' but as he looked on Mon's straight grin of pearly white malice, he wondered if people had ever seen him in such a foul way, and if they did… His gaze fell on Shinohara, whom stood in complete horror, Juuzou wondered if they made the same expression as his mentor was making right then.

As he stared on at Shinohara yet another question came to Juuzou's mind, should he be making that same face? Should he be just as horrified as his mentor? He looked to the guard's corpse, the terror in the corpses wide empty eyes leaving no impact on him, Juuzou wasn't horrified, wasn't frightened, or angry…

…Because…

…It was only a stupid guard…

…It was only a stupid man…

…It was only a stupid human...

…It was only a grisly death…

…Because he didn't like him…

Because he didn't care.

He wondered if he should care, but then he thought of how stupid a question like that was, and moved on.

"GET OVER HERE!" Juuzou had never heard Shinohara shout with such rage before, he watched as he grabbed Mon's wrist and wrenched the knife out of her hand, all she did was giggle at the action. "You think this is funny?!" Shinohara screamed, Mon's giggle transformed into a maniacal laugh, and Juuzou found himself smirking at the entire ordeal.

Funny indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

With A Grin and A Laugh

 _A/N: I'm sorry for the late update, it's short too so I'm extra sorry for that! Things aren't going well right now. I'm traveling between home and hospital at the moment, and I've got school work to do. So forgive my lateness in other on-going stories as well._

Juuzou scrunched his nose with an offended sniff as his eyes drifted to Mon, who walked between himself and Shinohara. She smelt horrible, and not her usual kind of horrible.

Juuzou noticed that for the past week, ever since the incident with the guard and her demotion, that Mon's usual bloody smell had been mixed in with something else, something toxic, something chemical.

Another thing Juuzou noticed, was the book bag Mon began to carry around with her, one which appeared at the same time as her new odor. A rather large backpack in the shape of a Panda bear, it looked like something for toddlers, Mon was far too old to carry such a thing. A perverse chuckle came from the twisted girl.

"Undressing me with your eyes _again_ , Pet?" She cackled, "you'll never get some that way!" Juuzou's mouth twitched.

"Undressing you? More like wondering why you're so gross! You smell horrible~" Juuzou sang with a grin.

"At least strangers don't mistake me for my opposite gender," she grinned, "you look like a little girl! Your Ghoul owner must've _really_ done a number on your- " A harsh thump came to Mon's head, causing her to stop and blink before looking to Shinohara, whom growled deeply at her.

"Stop now, before you say something you can't take back." He warned. Mon flashed a crooked smirk to him, he always became so protective of Juuzou when she would say something about his past. It was always so funny! Shinohara's face would scrunch up in disapproval, meanwhile, Juuzou's eyes would get a strange glossy look to them which told Mon that she'd successfully triggered a past trauma of his.

"I never take anything back, so it's not like it matters!" She cheered, Juuzou looked to Shinohara whom had been wearing a frown more frequently.

Ever since the incident with the guard, Shinohara's attitude had changed. He frowned often, he was short with Mon, and he was more distracted, Juuzou noticed that his mentor seemingly abandoned the idea of helping the girl, which was fine with him… But… If that was the case, then why was Mon still hanging around them? Why were they still going on outings?

Mon stopped suddenly, causing Juuzou's shoulder to bump her, he stopped just ahead of her, Shinohara did the same. Mon was looking across the street with wide interested eyes, and an equally interested grin.

"Blood," she stated before her partners could question her, "can't you smell it? There's a lot of it, coming from over this way!" She charged into the middle of the street, cars came to a halt, or swerved, Juuzou watched her slide across the hood of one as she narrowly avoided another.

"Mon-chan!" Shinohara called as he took after her, as did Juuzou. The three ran in the same direction they'd been traveling before, just on the opposite side of the street. Mon knocked people down as she ran. She turned into an alleyway, Juuzou barely caught sight of her long hair disappearing behind a corner just within the alley.

"There's a ghoul this way!" Mon exclaimed over her shoulder, "or at least a bunch of dead people! The scent of decomposition is so strong!" She called as she jumped up onto a small wall, hardly four feet above the ground. She balanced along its thin stone, before jumping up onto a tin awning only a few feet higher. Juuzou was quick to follow her exact alley-cat path, meanwhile Shinohara went a different way.

The smell of something rotten finally came to Juuzou in a small area, not even wide enough to spread his arms, between two apartment buildings. Juuzou followed Mon as she leapt from awning to awning, balcony to balcony. Before leaping onto a low set roof and ultimately to the ground.

Juuzou stood atop the low roof for a long moment, gazing down at the ugly sight before him. Just behind a seemingly abandoned building, blood and bodies loitered about in the dark area just before a line of trees. Juuzou scrunched his nose in insult yet again, only that time it was at the odor of rotting flesh, blood, and urine.

"Man oh man," Juuzou looked to Mon, whom walked casually amidst the human filth, "this sure is a great big, gross, mess isn't it?" She delivered a kick to severed head which was only half decomposed. "And you call me gross? HA! Now _this_ is gross!" As Juuzou joined her on the blood ridden ground, she grinned back at him. "Isn't it awesome?" Juuzou didn't even bother to respond, he didn't know how to. Part of him agreed with her, part of him did not. There was nothing to be said.

"… Dear lord…" Shinohara breathed, Juuzou turned to find his mentor bringing up the rear, "what the hell is this?"

"Hunting grounds!" Mon cried with glee, "someone's a sloppy eater!" She cackled as she began to kick whatever bodies she came across.

"What're you doing? Stop that!" Shinohara scolded her, she snorted.

"I'm checking to see if any of them are alive! DUH!" Juuzou was surprised at that, she was looking for survivors? In such a mess? How unexpectedly naïve… He glanced over to his mentor, and noticed that he was looking rather distracted yet again.

"Ne, Shinohara-san," Juuzou called as he came to stand by the older investigator, "we'd better watch out just in case the ghoul's here right?" Shinohara then snapped out of his trance before nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, that's right. I'll call HQ to report what we've found." He stated as he removed his cell from the confines of his pocket.

"What I'VE found!" Mon corrected as she stomped on a bare skull, the bone breaking under her foot.

Red rinkaku suddenly came from the left, knocking Shinohara's cellphone out of his hands. Juuzou and Shinohara were quick to move away, closer to Mon, whom was without a quinque.

"Uh-oh, looks like some live-stocks found my left overs." A woman smiled to them sweetly as she stepped into view, she licked her lips as she looked on the trio. "Can't have you calling for back-up now can we?"

Shinohara and Juuzou were quick to release their quinque, Juuzou charged the ghoul head-on. Her rinkaku whipped about as she attacked Juuzou, whom avoided her lashes gracefully, while embedding his bikaku knifes into the woman's rinkaku. Shinohara kept at a tactful distance, Juuzou darted about far too much for Shinohara to go swinging his quinque around, he feared hitting his younger partner by accident.

"Where're you going?" Shinohara called after Mon, whom ran to a nearby wall, taking advantage of a small bundle of bodies piled one on top of the other, she stepped on the stack of corpses and leapt onto the low set roof she'd been on earlier.

Positioning herself so that she was just above the ghoul, who was distracted by Juuzou, Mon removed her book bag with a grin, things were about to get hot.

Juuzou had been getting closer and closer to the woman ghoul, who didn't seem too bothered by his bikaku knifes. He was about to come face to face with her when, the smell of chemicals suddenly became very strong and something wet landed on him. A rinkaku tail swatted at him, Juuzou avoided the attack and distanced himself.

"What the hell?!" The ghoul growled in anger, she was completely drenched, "kerosene?!" She cried, a giggle came from above attracting everyone's attention.

Mon stood, a jerry can sitting next to her along with her empty book bag, grinning down on them. In her hand were several lit matches. Before any words could be said, or any actions taken, the flaming matches were airborne, some were extinguished during flight, some missed their target, but it didn't matter because only one needed to stay alight, and only one needed to graze her mark.

The ghoul burst into flames, screams of agony following shortly after the combustion, flames caught on to the puddles of kerosene which had landed near the burning ghoul, catching already decomposing corpses on fire as well. Juuzou took a few steps back as the ghoul dropped to the ground, a writhing, howling, flaming, mess. Mon stood on the roof, watching the scene, cackling like the witch she was.

In the end it was Shinohara who was gracious enough to grant the ghoul death, though her body still burned, she no longer thrashed nor did she scream. Mon finally joined her partners on the ground then. Amidst the burning corpses she approached them, her black mane billowing out like a dark cloak as she did so.

"Why'd you go and do that for?" She questioned Shinohara, who responded by grabbing her hoodie and lifting her off the ground. He glared down at her, clearly wanting to shout and scream at her, but he found that he was too angry to properly form words at that moment.

Mon then turned to Juuzou, with a laugh and a grin, she said to him: "My, my, Pet, you've got that look in your eye again." Juuzou didn't know what 'look' she referred to, and didn't want to know either.

"Mon-chan." Shinohara finally spoke, "Ghoul Countermeasures Article thirteen, clause 2: The infliction of unnecessary pain against ghouls is _strictly prohibited_." He recited with a growl.

" _Strictly prohibited_ ," Mon echoed, "if that were true it wouldn't be the rule that's most often broken."

No punishment was given to Mon since no one alive, or of any significance, was harmed by her little fire. Juuzou recalled how that might not have been the case. He'd been dowsed in kerosene as well as the ghoul, once Mon noticed this she tried her best to set him a blaze as well, to no avail of course.


End file.
